Vegetarian Diet & Frequent Urination

[Ron Put]

So, it's not my imagination :)

I've been getting up during the night to urinate, with some frequency over the last couple of years. I am male and I am getting older, but my prostate is apparently perfect based on exams, my last PSA is 0.4 ng/ml. My urologist says I am functioning perfectly.

I do restrict feeding to about 8 hours a day, starting at noon. I am generally hungrier at night and much less so in the morning, and my social (and to an extent, professional) life necessitates dinners rather than breakfasts. I eat quite a bit of fiber, averaging 253% of RDA over the last three months, so I drink water, especially in the evenings. And I am vegan and eat my vegetables. And as I've amped up the vegetable content, I've started getting up at night.

Any other herbivores experiencing the same?

Vegetarian Diet & Frequent Urination

Frequent urination can be a nuisance, but if you think your vegetarian diet is the cause, it may be worth the nuisance. A vegetarian diet excludes meat, poultry and fish. If you're eating a healthy and balanced vegetarian diet that is rich in complex carbs, fiber and essential vitamins and minerals, you may be at a lower risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. While there isn't a direct connection between regular visits to the bathroom to urinate and a vegetarian diet, some of your food choices may increase your fluid intake or act as a mild diuretic

[Dean Pomerleau]

49 minutes ago, Ron Put said:

Any other herbivores experiencing the same?

Yes, of course - and I eat all my food for the day by 8:30am.

If you sleep alone, a urinal can make it much less disruptive of your sleep pattern.

--Dean

[Todd Allen]

I had to get up several times a night to pee when I was vegan and it continued while vegetarian.  It has completely resolved.  Now, most nights the last thing I do before going to sleep is to drink a pint to a quart of water and when I wake up I usually don't bother to pee until after my morning workout, usually 30 minutes sometimes longer.  But I never thought of it as a plant vs animal foods sort of thing.  I haven't given up plant foods, just the ones that were problematic for me.  The explanation which seems to fit was my diet was carbohydrate rich in excess of my tolerance leading hyperinsulinemia which occurs before an elevation in fasting glucose which is recognized as prediabetes.  I suspect I have a predisposition to hyperinsulinemia induced morbidities such as polyuria, raynaud's, tinnitus, skin tags, etc. although even in regular people hyperinsulinemia alone is sometimes referred to as diabetes mellitus in situ or occult diabetes.  All of those have faded away as I achieved stable moderate post prandial blood sugar and low c peptide along with reversal of the standard markers of metabolic syndrome such as triglycerides and HDL.

[Saul]

My diet is not vegan -- but it's "nearly vegan" -- except for 3ozs of sashimi salmon and some seaweed salad for all of dinner -- it's vegan.  Most of my food intake is raw vegetables -- which are high in water and fiber.  And I drink ca 64ozs of carefully brewed Chinese white tea (and ca 1lb raw Nappa cabbage) for breakfast every morning, plus water and artificially sweetened sodas all day -- so, not surprisingly, I also frequently urinate in the bathroom adjoining the master bedroom during the night. 

BTW, by far the largest meal of the day for me is lunch.

  --  Saul

[mccoy]

It's a very rare night when I do not get up and visit the bathroom. Sometimes it happens twice. I eat lots of vegetables, day and night. I drink plenty of liquids and eat fruit usually in the morning. No prostate problems either.

Edited April 24, 2021 by mccoy

[drewab]

I get up to pee once a night more or less every night. I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s practically unconscious at this point and I fall back asleep nearly instantly. I think it comes with the territory of eating a diet rich in plants (probably 6-7 pounds daily) and with virtually no added sodium. For a period of time I restricted all fluids within a few hours of bed and also included salt about 3-4 hours before bed in the form of hot sauce. This seemed to allow me to retain water overnight and not have to get up to pee. Ultimately I decided that the extra sodium was not worth it (it moved my intake from 400mg a day to 1000-1500mg or so). 
 

I think it’s remarkable how clear my pee is on an exclusive WFPB diet without any refined products. Prior to eating this way I was focused heavily on animal products and I did not experience this (though I had a plethora of other health issues). 

[Todd Allen]

9 minutes ago, drewab said:

Ultimately I decided that the extra sodium was not worth it (it moved my intake from 400mg a day to 1000-1500mg or so). 

This might be a significant factor for me to.  I was restricting sodium when I was eating plant based high carb and having issues with frequent urination.  Now I make an effort to get a minimum of 5 g daily sodium and can sometimes go much higher.  I previously mentioned the last thing I do each night is drink a pint to a quart of water but neglected to add it is after exercise in a sauna and I'm typically drinking half of what I lost in sweat.  I'm sweating out salt too which may be why I do better consuming more salt.

[Ron Put]

Phew, I don't feel weird now :) Thank you!

I guess frequent urination is a byproduct of healthy eating, as is, at times, gas...

[CJay]

What kind of water do you drink? I'm vegan and I drink over a gallon of water a day but I don't have this problem - even drinking before bed. 

It stopped for me when I stopped drinking reverse osmosis filtered water (perhaps my body couldn't hold onto the lack of minerals?).  It also helped to gain a little weight - I didn't have a period for awhile but now I do and I'm at bmi 18.5 again (was about 17-17.5 for most of my twenties). 

I restrict salt bc I don't generally like salty foods and I get migraines easily from it - it sounds like it's likely your water and food in the evening.  Even if I have 32 oz in the evening most of my water and food is before 5pm.